The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have previously been conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Tele-presence systems attempt to imitate face-to-face communication between two or more remote users. Conventionally, services such as video conferencing have become widely popular forms of communicating over vast distances. Current tele-presence systems typically work though a two-dimensional screen which displays a live video signal of each user. Face-to-face communication, however, includes a plurality of various forms of engagement, including body language and spatial awareness in addition to conveying verbal and otherwise non-verbal information. While users may wish to communicate by pointing at things, gesturing, or talking with their hands, it is difficult to validate or communicate such forms of communication through traditional two-dimensional systems.
Furthermore, traditional tele-presence devices rigidly integrate the camera to the body of the tele-presence device, preventing the camera from being used with multiple tele-presence devices or repositioned by a local user. This may create difficulties when a local user wishes to show a remote user a nearby location or object, but the tele-presence device neither has the mobility nor the degree of visibility to capture the location or object within its field of view.
Accordingly, there is a need for a tele-presence system which allows users to feel a stronger sense of successful communication and to communicate spatially.